Diplod Amphorian
The Diplods (pronounced /dɪplɒd/ or /dɪ'plɵd/), commonly also referred to as the Diplod Amphorians (/dɪplɒd æmfɵriːɛn/ or /dɪ'plɵd æmfɵriːɛn/) due to the inseparable allegiance between the four serpentomorphic species on their homeworld of Kesari is one of the four Amphorian races, serving as the most aquatic of the four. The current leader of the Amphorian Empire, Zhevaria, is a Diplod. Statistics *'Lifestyle:' Social predator *'Hunt/Forage Success Rate:' 60% Hunt (80% success rate), 40% Farm (90% success rate) *'Armor:' Amphorian do not possess any natural armors, and their skin is soft and squishy. However, they have developed armors of low technology levels, consisting of wood, bone, and stone, as they have remained a shamanistic culture, and use metals for decoration rather than military purposes. *'Defenses:' The Amphorian are a poisonous race, possessing poisonous skin with which they could fend off their ancient predators. However, they have long since bypassed their predators with technology, and now defend against other species with a variety of weaponry as well as thick stone walls built around their cities. *'Weapons:' Unspecified *'Tools:' Each species of Amphorian have the ability to manipulate objects by using their hands which have evolved from the forelegs in each. *'Method of Eating:' Unspecified *'Reproductive Rate:' Unspecified *'Gestation:' Unspecified *'Offspring Incubation:' Unspecified *'Number of Offspring:' Unspecified *'Offspring Survival Rate (before age of maturity):' Unspecified *'Singular/Plural/Possessive:' Amphorian / Amphoria / Amphorian Physiology Diplods are the most aquatic and least serpentine of all Amphorian species, and spend much of their lives submerged. Before the arrival of the Grokk, the Diplod served the Amphorian Empire as their primary espionage agents, and as such, they were the first to be freed from their original duties. They have strange, bar-like eyelids and disc-like eyes behind that. Skeleton The most noticeable feature of the Diplodic skeleton is their skull. The skull is boomerang-shaped, and acts as a hydrofoil during swimming, thereby controlling depth by slight adjustments to the direction their head is facing. Their mouths are wide and flat, useful in their natural feeding style of grubbing along the swamp bed. The flat skull may help here as well by giving the Diplod a flatter profile, helping in hiding them from their natural predators, and allowing them to more easily sneak about during espionage. The vertebrae are quite flexible, and allow the Diplod to swim in either an up-and-down or a side-to-side undulation, although the latter style is stronger. Despite being an almost entirely aquatic species, Kesari has many bits of exposed land, which become much more prominent during certain seasons. Because of this, they have adapted strong legs that aid their flexible skeleton by allowing them to crawl about quadrupedally, but also allowing them to walk bipedal when necessary (which is their most common movement style seen off-world). While bipedal, their neck naturally folds over, allowing the head to look forward as opposed to forcing it straight up. Musculatory System The most powerful portion of a Diplod's body is the tail, where the strongest muscles are located. This gives them a powerful, undulating swimming stroke. Many of their vertebrae extend beyond the rest of the body, giving them a strange extension. These actually act as attachment points for the criss-crossing muscles throughout the body that allow their incredible flexibility. Muscles in the mouth are not well defined, as it is only required to crush benthic invertebrates for consumption. History Evolutionary History Early Tribal Histories The Lorc-Amphorian War & the Unification of the Amphorians thumb|A Diplod as it appears in [[w:c:spore:Spore|Spore.]] Eventually, the settlements of the four Amphorian races were discovered by the growing Lorcian Empire, which was ruled by the vicious Emperor Ghaag. He saw the settlements as a threat to his rule, and Lorcian mandate dictated the absolute subjugation of non-conformers. Not only this, but the Zalts were similar in appearance to the Lorc, only sleeker-formed, better swimmers, and better jumpers — the Emperor saw this as a direct attempt to upstage the Lorcs, and soon took action. He first brought his horrible webbed-fist down upon the small settlements of the Diplods, wreaking destruction amongst their species, and nearly eradicating them in only a few months; the species only survived by fleeing deeper into the swamps, where they ran across the local Zalts. Pleading for the Zalts' help, they at first refused, but did welcome their brethren into their ranks. It was not long before the Zalts felt the wrath of the Empire, as well. The Zalts fell almost as fast as the Diplods, and both races fled even deeper into the swamps, as the Empire's territory expanded exponentially. Seeing the Zalts and Diplods flee in a direction not congruent with discovering the settlements of the Massocions and Zoaraptors, the Lorcs relaxed, as the Massocions and Zoaraptors were far more snakelike than amphibian, leaving the Lorcs to feel they were not as much of a threat to the Lorcian physiological superiority. They spent several years enjoying their newly claimed territories, while hunting down the remnants of the Diplods and Zalts for sport. One such hunted was to become the most famous of all Amphorians to come. He was Amphor, an albino Zalt; an incredible rarity. Unfortunately, his albino skin prevented him from staying hidden, and he was eventually discovered by the Lorc sentry-scouts who patrolled the areas of the empire. Ghaag quickly declared a hunt to be on, and many Lorc took after this poor Amphorian. He was just fast enough to dodge the incoming barrage of projectile fire sent in volleys in his direction and managed to stay ahead of the hunters, although he couldn't lose them, due to their powerful sense of sight. Eventually, while fleeing in a panicked state he accidentally came upon a sudden drop off in the swamp's terrain and slipped under the surface. Surprised by this, the Lorcs took to the waters themselves. The chase continued underwater, and soon Amphor realized that there was no escape to be found down here in the depths. This lead him to swim as fast as he could to the surface; he swam so fast he leapt out of the water and landed on one of the low-lying branches of a Disguiser Tree (which was named thusly because of this story). Realizing he was in the tree, he quickly clambered into the higher branches, hoping the leaves would help hide him from his pursuers. Soon the Lorc hunting party emerged from the trench and returned to the surface-hunt. However, Amphor was nowhere to be seen. Confused, several went on to find him, while several stayed in the area to see if he was hiding somewhere. After several hours of watching the Lorc look for him, they still had not seen him and he decided to try and flee — choosing a nearby tree as his new spot he jumped with all his might, misjudging the distance required to get to it and hitting the tree with a loud thump, knocking several loose branches and leaves to the surface. Noticing this, the Lorcs quickly rushed over to the tree to investigate. Frightened, Amphor tried to hide again — however, he had not realized this tree was dying, and almost all of the leaves had just gotten knocked off by his slamming into it. He was exposed. However, after a few more minutes, the Lorcs were still just standing around. It became apparent to him that they could not look up, which was due to the shape of their spines. He used this to his advantage and slowly worked his way from treetop to treetop, until he finally got several miles away from the Lorc Hunting Parties. He had escaped successfully. News of this failure did not go over well for the Hunting Party and all members were quickly executed by order of Emperor Ghaag, each being fed to the Hellbenders in the coliseum. To save face in this recent embarrassment and improve his people's morale, Ghaag officially declared war on both the Massocions and the Zoaraptors, accepting nothing less than their utter eradication. Not only this, but a vast reward was placed on the head of Amphor, with his slayer being offered the chance of royalty. The Massocions and Zoaraptors were hit hard and both met severe losses. Seeing this, Amphor pleaded with his Zalt and Diplod brethren to assist them — when they initially refused out of fear of eradication, he told them he had a foolproof plan to defeat the Lorcs. Out of curiosity, the Zalts and Diplods followed Amphor into an area between a large settlement of Zoaraptors and an equally large settlement of Massocions. Here he blew a Trumpet Reed, which alarmed both settlements and brought their populace out to him. Although initially they were threatened by his presence and paranoid as to if the Lorcs had heard Amphor's reed-blowing, they slowly began to settle down as Amphor spoke of how he had evaded the Lorcs and how this was a way that they could defeat the vicious Ghaag. "However", he said, "we cannot fight this battle alone. We must all join together and combine our might in order to prevent our own extermination — all of our exterminations." Reluctantly, the Massocions and Zoaraptors agreed to join with the Diplods and Zalts, and Amphor's army was created. The first battle led by Amphor was a huge success, and became the stuff of legends and songs — Amphor led a group of many of the slimmest and most agile of each of the four species and made his presence known to a sentry-scout party. Knowing full well they would be unable to defeat so many people at once (or at least without a few escaping), the sentry-scouts quickly returned to the throne of Emperor Ghaag, telling him of the joined forces and that it contained the elusive Amphor, and within the hour an army of hundreds of the Lorc's best soldiers were well on their way to the site. Once the sentry-scouts were out of site, Amphor ordered his troops to climb and then hide in the trees of the area and attack from above, when he gave the signal. Once the entirety of the Lorc Army was underneath the Hybrid-Army, Amphor yelled the signal, and all four species let loose their volleys of death and destruction, causing confusion and eventually panic to sew through the ranks. Due to their inability to look up, the Lorcs were quickly brought down, until not a one still stood. Empowered by this battle's absolute success, the four species lead a ten-year assault on the Lorc Armies, slowly whittling down their numbers until the Lorc were greatly outnumbered in terms of military might. Quietly fearing the might of his enemies, Emperor Ghaag ordered the gates to the Imperial City shut and barred, preventing their foes from entering. Unfortunately, Ghaag had not considered the sewer systems as a means of entry, and within a month, Diplod scouts discovered this and reported it to Amphor. It was quickly exploited, and when the bulk of the Lorcian populace were asleep, Amphor's entire force snuck in through the causeways and quickly but silently killed all non-child Lorcs they came across, including the sleeping. With most of the Lorcs slain, Amphor stormed the main castle. Ghaag's remaining forces didn't stand a chance. By the next sunrise, Ghaag had been captured and taken to his coliseum, where the remnants of the Lorc population — only the children — were forced to watch as their former foes fed Ghaag to his own Hellbenders. Amphor was praised by the Zalt-Diplod-Massocion-Zoaraptor forces, and in a decision that would determine the existence of all four of the species, Amphor enslaved the Lorc children in order to prevent them from ever rising up against the other species again. He then declared all four races brothers and chose to name the collective group the Amphorians, in remembrance of this day. The Amphorians all but abandoned their old settlements and moved into the various temple-cities of the Lorc, which had far more advanced technologies. This was the beginning of the Amphorian Empire, which would eventually grow to encompass far more than the Lorcian Empire could have ever even imagined. The Grokk-Amphorian War A thousand years passed under the new rule of the Amphorians, during which they had near-successfully removed the Lorc's natural instinct to make war through selective breeding — this was done by only allowing the most subservient of the slaves to breed. Lorc numbers remained low during this first millennium because of this. The Amphorians had grown quite accustomed to living within the ancient walls of the Lorcian temple-cities, but had yet to build onto anything so far; they were content with the buildings as-is, as they were still quite structurally sound, and would remain that way for another thousand years. Amphor had long since passed away (about 692 years prior, at the ripe old age of 350), as had the next four rulers who followed, and a new ruler had been crowned as of only a decade earlier. This new ruler was a Diplod — law set up by Amphor himself demanded the four Amphorian races equals; the death of one leader of a certain species would bring about the rule of a new ruler, of a separate species. This order always followed the same pattern: Zalt, Diplod, Massocion, Zoaraptor. This was the official order in which the species joined the ancient army who defeated the Lorcian Empire. The Ytatta-Amphorian War The -Amphorian War The Sectyd-Amphorian War The Jlell-Amphorian War The Fafni-Amphorian War The Taming of the Great Salamands Nodh & the Great Amphorian-Technarian War The Era of Prosperity Discovery of Kalindra & the Terran-Amphorian War The Battle for Hush & the Defeat of Nodh The Era of Despair & the Rise of a New Leader Allies Major Allies *Massocion Amphorian *Technarian (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Zalt Amphorian *Zoaraptor Amphorian Minor Allies *Fafni (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Grokk (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Jlell (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Kuman (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Lorc (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Sectyd (Formerly a Major Enemy) *Ytatta (Formerly a Major Enemy) Enemies Major Enemies *Human *Hushian Category:Somarinoa's Content Category:Original Aliens Category:Spore Content Category:Species Category:Extraterrestrials Category:Sapient Species Category:Omnivores Category:NodhCohr Hierarchy Category:Kesari Inhabitants